What is Hopecore? TikTok's heartwarming trend explained

If you've been on TikTok, then you'll know all about the different aesthetics and '-core' trends that emerge on the app - and the latest one that has been taking over everyone's For You page is "Hopecore."

Previous trends such as the clean girl and mob wife aesthetics, are fixated on changing our outward appearance.

But hopecore focuses on our inner beauty and strength while also inspiring optimism through sharing motivational content.

"Hopecore is a new genre of content on TikTok dedicated to spreading messages of optimism, encouragement, and self-belief," said Louisa McGillicuddy, trends lead at TikTok.

"We're seeing the community creating and sharing compilations of motivational quotes, illustrations, images and poetry in scrapbook-style slideshows - anything from a wholesome meme, to a screenshot of a text from a friend, to a great passage from a book."

She also explained how Hopecore "is different from your usual motivational content in that it's very much about being soft with yourself - the posts are comforting, warm yet also self-aware."

"In classic TikTok style, there's also a unique sense of humour to Hopecore content, which is refreshing to see."

Often on the viral compilation videos, there will be positive messages such as "Life is beautiful," "Family is everything," and "Life is about moments."

With over 208,000 posts on the #hopecore hashtag, the videos are striking a chord with people as some of the most popular videos have anywhere between 1-30m views.

Some examples of hopecore include, wins from the world of sport, music and culture, for instance when Alistair Brownlee carried his brother Jonny over the finish line of the World Series Finale back in 2016 and when Amy Winehouse won Record Of The Year at the Grammy's for "Rehab" in 2008.

But it's not just musicians and sports stars who appear in videos, as other wholesome clips include a dog being excited to see its owner, a crowd cheering on a little girl to complete a water bottle flip, and a reporter getting hit in the face with a snowball.

TikToker's have also been posting a number of different image slideshows which all have some kind of motivational quotes as users have been saving them as a source of inspiration.

While hopecore has gained popularity in 2024, but videos on this subject matter began to emerge on TikTok from last year.

McGillicuddy added that this is just latest in a series of different cores that have gone viral on TikTok in recent, such as Cottagecore, Gorpcore, and even Corecore.

She noted:"Hopecore is already a lot bigger than some of the well-known cores which have been trending on TikTok recently - 218,000 creations for #Hopecore compared to 51,000 creations for #Balletcore and 71,000 creations for #Barbiecore."

It appears viewers have been loving the positive videos popping up on their feed, and have been engaging with them rather than doom scrolling past.

One person said: "I wanna stay on hopecore forever."

"I want my entire fyp to be hopecore for real," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "Hope core is the best."

"Commenting to stay on hope core forever," a fourth person replied.

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